I've never found that confusing. Tapping the address bar opens a whole new navigate/search view. X closes that view. The most common use case is entering a new search or url, just start typing, the existing text is already selected so it will overwrite. On the off chance you want to edit the current URL, it's there. I can't think of a more streamlined workflow. Whatever you're used to is only good because you're used to it, but it's adding extra steps and/or unnecessary UI elements.